Dome's future is anybody's guess (Astrodome days numbered without Olympics in Houston?)

Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle Houston's elimination Tuesday as a potential host city for the 2012 Olympics will force Harris County officials to find new uses for the county-owned Reliant Astrodome -- and new, as yet undetermined revenue sources to pay for those uses.

Under the Houston 2012 Foundation's plans to bring the 2012 Games to Houston, the Dome would have been gutted and revamped, at an estimated cost of $90 million, into a one-of-a-kind enclosed track and field stadium.

But with Tuesday's decision by the U.S. Olympic Committee site selection team to drop Houston's bid from consideration, the foundation will cease operations -- probably before the end of the year -- and sole control of the Dome's fate reverts to Commissioners Court and the Harris County Sports and Convention Corp.

"I think it's now time for us to start a serious analysis of what can be done with the Dome," County Judge Robert Eckels said Tuesday. "It will all be driven by economics. I don't know if we can turn it into a profit center, but maybe it can be something that doesn't cost us money."

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo has the option of using the Dome for events through 2003, and the NFL will use it for Super Bowl-related events in 2004, when the game will be at Reliant Stadium.

After that, what will happen to the old gray lady of domed stadiums, completed in 1965 and billed as the Eighth Wonder of the World, is anybody's guess.

The Dome is managed by the sports corporation, which is run by executive director Willie Loston and Mike Surface, chairman of the corporation's board. They and Eckels said there are several possible uses that will be examined: marketing the Dome as a facility for concerts and monster truck rallies or trying to revamp it and turn it into a hotel complete with exhibition halls, small concert venues, retail shops and restaurants.

"I don't think any of these ideas are a big surprise," Surface said. "We could have a lot of options. I just don't think anybody wanted to say anything or study any of these ideas, because we didn't want to look like we were undermining the Olympic bid."

The Houston 2012 Foundation, which has offices in the Dome and had first call on its future while the Olympic bid remained alive, is required under USOC regulations to cease operations, which takes it out of the decision-making loop. But that doesn't keep foundation officials from hoping and suggesting some sports-related use be found for the Dome.

"I think the Astrodome, if at all possible, should be saved," said foundation president Susan Bandy. "We don't want to be a city that tears things down."

"I hope it doesn't go away," said foundation chairman George DeMontrond III. "I think that most longtime Houstonians want it to stay and to stay as a sports venue, but that is going to be tough to do. We have to figure out a creative way to do that."

The indoor track and field plan was creative -- so much so that the sport's international governing body issued a statement last week endorsing the Dome plan as a model for the United States and other nations to emulate.

Former City Councilman John Kelley, who founded the Houston 2012 effort and obtained the international body's blessing for the Dome project, said he hopes the Dome can be converted for soccer or full-scale indoor track and field, if on a smaller scale than the plan envisioned for the Olympics.

"If we move forward today, I still believe that we have a chance for the future," he said. "If we continue efforts to get the world track and field championships here (in 2007 or 2009) and pack that Dome with 40 or 50 events a year and keep it alive, I think that in 15 to 20 years we can create benefits for the next generation."

But DeMontrond said of the track plan: "I don't know if it's a paying proposition. It would be a great use for the Dome, but I don't know if those events, absent the Olympics, will pay for the sort of renovations that will be required."

At the other end from Kelley's dreams of a unique legacy for world track is a more humble fate for the Dome. Officials have quietly pondered turning it into a parking garage, but that plan has yet to get serious consideration.

Whatever is done, Surface said, officials want to make sure it complements the $449 million Reliant Stadium complex and all of the other amenities now on the site.

"We now need to agree upon a criteria for a future use," Surface said. "A future use has to complement the other venues, and it has to be something with revenue associated with it."

County officials say it costs about $500,000 a year to keep the building in "hibernation" between events.

The other question: How will improvements or converting the Dome to other uses be funded? Eckels said there's no desire to use property tax revenue for the effort, and officials have been debating whether hotel and rental car tax revenues are tapped out because of the construction of Reliant Stadium, Minute Maid Park and the downtown basketball arena.

Surface said the answer might be some kind of public partnership with private developers.

"I don't think the public should be expected to pay all the costs (of converting the Dome), but I'm not ruling out the possibility of some kind of (public) assistance," Surface said. "Each venue has its own economics."

I don't want to see the Astrodome go (even voted down the new stadiums) but I've known for a long time that the days were numbered. Few buildings get to last 40 years in Houston any more.

Reading this article, I can already feel the hand of local government reaching into my pocket for more money.

I was personally pleased to see Houston out of the running for the Olympics - The reasons for its removal will be argued but in fact, Houston, and even Texas are not seen as international destination city/state - for the European or Asian tourist - too hot, still has the crime onus hanging over its head - and though for years it has been the Oil Capitol of the US - it has never been the money capitol of the US, which in itself is a bit of a dychotomy.

I lived in LA during the Olympics and saw a city turn out 800 police assigned soley to the Games (that includes cars, radios, motorcycles, etc.) - Houston couldn't have met that human requirement without calling up the National
Guard and would have had to float a bond issue to buy the Ford Victorias and Harley Davidson.

Likewise, LA was able to deal with their indigent problem very admirably - Oh, if someone forgot to mention this in all the hype about the games - a city needs to play "hide" the homeless during the games - poor people and illegals are not the group that city fathers want as models for the tourists.

Crime rate is still too high in Houston - a single track to the Dome does not a light rail system make.

They should breath a sigh of relief after not getting the nod - it would have cost too much (ask Atlanta -they will be paying that debt off for the next 35 years) and far exceeded the Human and financial resources of not only Houston but also the State of Texas.

If you follow the money - San Francisco, California and New York, NY win hands down.

I vote to use it for female gladiator events! Attractive,
successful, hard-charging career women (preferably TV anchor and/or talk show types) could fight each other (to the death) for a chance to have dinner with--
Bill Clinton! Crowds of liberals would pack the Dome
each Friday night to observe the blood-letting! Imagine,
Katie Couric vs. Ashley Banfield, Connie Chung-one-on-one with the fat red head from The View! Donahue could finally
emcee a show James Carville would watch! Janet Reno as
the do-nothing referee, Al Gore as the solemn (and solo)
judge!

I wanted to build an artificial mountain over the dome. There have been several instances of Hollywood superimposing a mountain into the Houston skyline, this would save them the trouble. It would also give mountain climbers, etc. something to do.

My payment for the idea? I'll use the interior of the mountain for my secret hideout....

Actually somebody's "legitimately" proposed idea has them building an artificial mountain inside of the dome.

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